Legal Commentary

U.S. Completing Turnover of Iraqi Prisoners

By Jeralyn

Tariq Aziz has been turned over to Iraqi custody to finish serving his 22 year sentence. He is one of 55 former members of Saddam Hussein's government turned over.

The handover was announced one day before Iraqi authorities take control of Camp Cropper, the last US-run detention facility in Iraq. Ibrahim said several more detainees would be turned over in the next 24 hours. The formal transfer of the last U.S. detention centre in Iraq -- Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport -- takes place on Thursday.

But the US military says it will keep control of roughly 200 prisoners even after the handover. US authorities will continue to oversee some operations at the prison until the end of the year.

According to Reuters,

The handover was part of a security pact signed in 2008 under which the U.S. military agreed to stop making arrests, hand over its remaining detention centres and withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 14, 2010 (boomark / email).